The Compagnons Emmaüs de la Halte-Saint-Jean in Saint-André entered their third month of strike on Thursday, September 28. On this occasion, they received a visit from LFI deputies Ugo Bernacilis and Rachel Keke who came to support them and took over the Saint-Jean stopover, thus radicalizing their movement.
Since July 3, 2023, a strike movement began at the Halte Saint-Jean, the Compagnons Emmaüs, dozens of undocumented people criticize the management for their working and living conditions and the non-regularization of their administrative situation .
Ninety days after the start of the strike, the Compagnons received the support of LFI deputies Ugo Bernalicis (second constituency of the North) and Rachel Keke (seventh constituency of Val de Marne). As the deputies arrived, the Compagnons took over the courtyard of the Halte Saint-Jean, thus “radicalizing” their movement.
What can happen now? The Compagnons and their supporters, the Comité des Sans Papiers du Nord, the CGT, believe that this is a first stage of radicalization. And that the strikes in Grande-Synthe and Tourcoing show the beginning of a national movement.
Furthermore, a preliminary investigation into human trafficking, hidden work and breach of trust against vulnerable people was opened by the Lille public prosecutor’s office. Searches took place on June 13, 2023.
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Rachel Keke, LFI deputy for Val-de-Marne, questioned about the outcome of the conflict. • ©France Télévisions
Rachel Keke, rebellious MP for Val-de-Marne, believes that the outcome of the conflict, without encroaching on the judicial domain, is a regularization of the Compagnons.
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Alixe Kombila, spokesperson for the Companions on Strike • ©France Télévisions
We do not know at this time the follow-up given or not to this preliminary investigation. On the other hand, those responsible for Halte Saint-Jean, its president Pierre Duponchel, believe that the Compagnons are “manipulated“. According to him, filing a complaint for human trafficking would in itself allow for provisional papers, thus speeding up their obtaining.
Stéphane Vonthron, CGT Nord, asks: “Which association today employs a volunteer with working hours for 40 hours a week? Statutorily speaking, they are workers. A volunteer who is forced to come seven hours or eight hours a day is not volunteering “.
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Stéphane Vonthron, CGT Nord • ©France Télévisions
Pierre Duponchel, contacted by telephone, recalled a few days ago: “Allowance in exchange for work is a union dialectic, a joke”, recalling that the Companions are not employees, and that “Emmaüs is an association, not a company. It does not employ companions. There is an associative life and everyone must, if they wish, participate in the life of the community. In return for meals and accommodation, they You have to give time for the store to run.”
Two opposing visions, the legal and administrative outcomes of which remain to be known…
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